Hydraulic ship propeller



Jan. 30, 1968 B. c. WOLFE 3,366,183

HYDRAULIC SHI P PROPELLER Filed Sept. 8, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. BARON O. WOLFE immse'ncl i [cumsend ATTORNEYS Jan. 30, 1968 B. c. WOLFE 3,366,183

IIII NTOR. BARON C. WOLFE iownsend flownsehd ATTORNEYS United States Patent M 3,366,183 HYDRAULIC SHIP PROPELLER Baron C. Wolfe, 24 W. Grant St., Box X, Eureka, Calif. 95501 Filed Sept. 8, 1966, Ser. No. 577,868 1 Claim. (Cl. 170135.7)

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A hydraulically driven ships propeller in which all moving parts are exterior of the hull. A hydraulic propeller in which all moving parts are symmetrical about a central axis. A hydraulically driven ships propeller capable of operation in wide range of speeds and torque ratings.

This invention relates to a hydraulic driven propeller for fluid borne vessels such as ships.

Convention propeller drive mechanisms include a prime mover mounted in a ships hull, a shaft extending from the prime mover and through the ships hull into the water, and a propeller mounted on the end of the shaft. Such conventional systems require sophisticated and complex bushings or bearings for supporting the shaft at the point that it extends through the hull in order to avoid water leakage. Moreover, such systems require complex control gear for controlling the direction and speed of rotation of the propeller in steering the vessel.

The present invention provides a ships propeller that is supported and driven exteriorly and rigidly relative the ships hull thereby avoiding the need for complex water tight bearings or bushings. The propeller includes one or more blades mounted on the exterior surface of a casing that has a cylindric chamber therein. The ends of the cylindric chamber are closed and at one end a bearing is provided concentric with the cylindric axis of the chamber. A shaft, secured at one end thereof to the hull of the vessel, is fitted in the bearing to support the casing for rotation on' the shaft. Fixed to the shaft within the cylindric chamber is a body having a lobed periphery so as to define one or more fluid compartments between adjacent lobes and the cylindric chamber. One or more vanes extending radially inwardly of the casing and into the cylindric chamber divide the fluid compartments into a power compartment and an exhaust compartment; application of pressurized fluid to the former and exhaust from the latter rotatively drive the casing and the blades mounted thereto.

The operative details of the hydraulic fluid conveying and controlling elements of the appartus are described in greater detail in my US. Patents Nos. 3,241,456 and 3,289,543, a division of the former patent. Such specific elements will, however, be described hereinafter insofar as is necessary for a full understanding of the present invention.

An object of this invention is to provide a propeller for a fluid-borne vessel that is capable of accurate, widerange control without sacrificing efliciency and without requiring complicated gear changing mechanism. The present invention achieves this object by employing hydraulic fluid pressure as the energizing medium for the propeller and consequently permits utilization of wellknown hydraulic fluid supply and control systems.

Another object is to provide a ships propeller that substantially eliminates the necessity for water-tight bearings 3,366,183 Patented Jan. 30, 1968 or bushings. The shaft supporting apparatus of this invention is rigidly secured exterior of the hull and therefore presents no leakage problems whatsoever. The relatively moving parts of the apparatus that reside exterior of the hull and within the water contain hydraulic fluid under extremely high pressure interiorly thereof so as to prevent ingress of sea water. Additionally, even when the propeller apparatus is not moving, as when the vessel is standing by, sufiicient hydraulic fluid pressure can be maintained in the structure to prevent ingress of sea water.

A feature and advantage of the propeller driving structure of the present invention is that virtually all wearing parts are mounted exterior of the hull, as a consequence of which the entire structure can be removed for servicing or replacement without necessitating access to the hull interior. Thus, hoisting equipment and related repair facilities of much less sophisticated nature than those presently necessary can be employed for servicing vessels provided with apparatus of the present invention.

Other objects, features and advantages will be more apparent after referring to the following specification and accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a ships propeller made according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a satisfactory expedient for securing a propeller blade to the driving apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view in elevation showing the driving apparatus mounted on the hull of a vessel; and

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 44 of FIG. 3.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, reference numeral 12 indicates a shaft adapted for rigid attachment to the hull of a vessel which shaft is adapted to support a casing 14, rotatively journalled on the shaft and within the water supporting the vessel. Mounted on the exterior of casing 14 is one or more propeller blades 16 which are designed in a more or less conventional manner to propel the vessel through the water as casing 14 and the propeller blades are rotatively driven.

Referring to FIG. 3, a vessel hull is shown fragmentarily at H and has alfixed thereto a shaft mounting block B that supports shaft 12 rigidly of the hull. One or more cross pins P are provided for securing shaft 12 against rotation relative to the hull.

Supported on shaft 12 exterior of hull H is casing 14, roller thrust bearings of conventional form 18 and 20 being provided for journalling the casing on the shaft. Casing 14 at the end thereof remote from the hull is provided with an end closure 22 which engages the outer race of bearing 20 and seals the interior of casing 14 against ingress of sea water. The opposite end of casing 14 includes a retaining ring 24 which in conjunction with a collar 26, keyed at 27 to shaft 12, supports thrust bearing 18 in operative position.

Referring to FIG. 4, casing 14 is formed with a cylindric surface 28 interior thereof, which surface is concentric with the axis of shaft 12. A lobed body 30 is keyed to shaft 12 at 32 and has a plurality of lobes 34a, 34b, and 340 uniformly positioned about the periphery thereof. The outer peripheral extremities of the lobes cooperate with cylindric surface in substantially non-contacting, fluidsealing relationship, by which is meant that the lobe extremities are spaced apart from the cylindric surface so as not to contact such surface, but are sufficiently close to the cylindric surface to substantially preclude passage of hydraulic fluid from one side of the lobe to the other. As is understood by those versed in the hydraulic arts, the clearance between the radial extremity of the lobes 34 and cylindric surface 28 of about .0005 inch affords the desired relationship.

Casing 14 is provided with a plurality of radially extending slots 36a, 36b, 36c, and 36d which communicate with the cylindric chamber defined by cylindric surface 28 and which slidably support respective vanes 38a, 33b, 38c, and 38d. A compression spring 49 is provided in each slot 36 for resiliently biasing the associated vane 38 into contact with the peripheral surface of lobed body 30. It can thus be seen in FIG. 4 with respect to vane 38d that on one side of the vane a compartment 42a is defined between the vane, cylindric surface 28 and the peripheral surface of lobed body 30, whereas on the opposite side of the vane a compartment 42b is similarly formed.

Lobed body 30 is provided with a plurality of generally radially extending passages for communicating with the various compartments defined between the lobed body and cylindric surface 28. Formed on one side of the individual lobes of lobed body 30 are passages 44a, 44b and 440. Also associated with each lobe 34 is a second passage 46a, 46b and 46 respectively. Each of the passages 44 and 46 terminates in one or more orifices on the periphery of disk 30, the orifices communicating with passages 44 being located on one side, in the rotational sense, of lobes 34, and the orifices associated with passages 46 terminating on the opposite side of the lobes.

Each passage 44 extends to a centrally disposed annular manifold chamber 48 which is in fluid communication with a conduit 50 formed within shaft 12 and extending longitudinally thereof to the interior of hull H. Passages 46 are connected through a similar manifold chamber 52 and conduit 54 to the hull interior. Interiorly of the hull conduits 50 and 54 are connected through a conventional hydraulic control valve 56 to a conventional hydraulic pump 58, valve 56 being provided with a control lever 60, manipulation of which affords alternate supplying of pressurized fluid to one of conduits 50 or 54 and exhaust of the fluid through the other conduit.

The operation of my invention can be discerned most clearly from FIG. 4 if it is assumed that hydraulic fluid under pressure is being supplied through conduit 50 and manifold chamber 48 to passages 44a, 44b and 440 and is being exhausted through passages 46a, 46b and 460 and conduit 54. Referring to passage 44a, it can .be seen that pressurized fluid supplied therefrom is applied to the compartment defined between lobe 34a, vane 38a and cylindric surface 28 and that such action produces a clockwise force on vane 38. Such clockwise force on vane 38a causes corresponding clockwise movement of casing 14 and propeller blades 16 secured thereto, as a consequence of which hull H is propelled through the water. As vane 380 so moves, the compartment forwardly thereof and in communication with passage 46b is exhausted through the passage and through conduit 54 to be returned to the hydraulic pump 58. correspondingly torque is delivered to the casing 14 through vane 380 in response to inflow of fluid through passage 44b. The compartment between vane 38c and passage 44b, in the phase of operation shown in FIG. 4, is nearing the end of its torque producing period. When the casing 14 has rotated approximately 15 clockwise of the position shown in FIG. 4, vane 3817 will be in such position as to receive fluid pressure from passage 44b so as to contribute to rotative movement of casing 14. Torque is also delivered to casing 14, when the casing is in the position depicted in FIG. 4, through vane 38d, which vane is in an intermediate stage between lobe 34c, lobe 34a. Thus fluid pressure exists on the right side of vane 38d as viewed in the figure because of the inflow of pressurized fluid through passage 44c, and fluid is exhausted from the left side of vane 38d through fiuid passage 46a. From the foregoing it will be apparent that as casing 14 rotates around lobed body 30 the various compartments between the periphery of the lobed body and cylindric surface 28 go through, in sequence, power phases and exhaust phases. Because the number of vanes 38 exceeds the number of lobes 34, at least one of the vanes is active to deliver torque to casing 14 at all times. Accordingly, there are no dead spots in the operation of the apparatus.

Moreover, reversal of the direction of rotation of casing 14 relative shaft 12 is effected by manipulating valve 56 so that pressurized fluid is supplied through conduit 54 and exhausted through conduit 50. Such simplified reversal is possible because lobed body 30 and housing 14 are symmetrical relative the axis of shaft 12.

When it is desired to terminate rotation of casing 14, control valve 56 is moved to a position at which pressurized fluid is supplied equally to conduits and 54. Accordingly, the pressure 011 each side of vanes 38 is equalized to stop rotation of the casing and a positive pressure exists at collar 26 to prevent ingress of sea water to the hydraulic system.

Although the blades 16 can be secured to casing 14 by any one of a number of conventional techniques, it has been found that the expedient depicted in FIG. 2 is satisfactory in that the blades can be individually replaced. For this purpose the blade at the base thereof is provided with a smoothly flared portion 62 in which portion are formed a first row of sloped holes 64 and a second row of sloped holes 66 spaced intermediate hole 64. A bolt 68 is passed through each hole and is threadedly engaged in casing 14, thus securing blade 16 to the housing. Thus the blades can be replaced individually, or should the hydraulic drive system wear before the blades, the blades can be reused by an attachment thereof to a new casing 14 and related wearing components.

It will thus be seen that the present invention provides a driving mechanism for fiuid-borne vessels which overcomes many of the problems present in prior art structures and which is capable of simplified directional and speed control without necessity for complicated gear changing apparatus as required in known prior art vessel propelling systems. Additionally, apparatus according to the present invention is so arranged that it can be conveniently removed from the vessel for repair and the like without necessity for expensive hoisting and/or docking facilities.

Although one embodiment of the invention has been shown and described it will be obvious that other adaptations and modifications can be made without departing from the true spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for driving a vessel through water and the like comprising a shaft adapted to be secured against rotation relative said vessel, 21 lobed body fixed to said shaft exterior of the vessel, said body having a plurality of uniformly spaced lobes therearound that are formed symmetrically relative the axis of said shaft, a casing enclosing said body and journalled for rotation on said shaft, said casing having a cylindrical internal surface in fluid tight sliding relation to the periphery of said lobed body to define at least one compartment bounded by two adjacent lobes and said cylindric surfaces, a plurality of vanes mounted in said casing symmetrically thereof for slidable movement radially of said cylindric surface, means for biasing said vanes into sliding contact with the peripheral surface of said lobed body and into said compartment, means for defining a first fluid passage through said shaft and said lobed body terminating on the periphery of said lobed body, means for defining a second fluid passage through said shaft and said lobed body terminating on the periphery of said lobed body, means for supplying fluid to one said passage at a pressure exceeding that of the water and exhausting fluid pressure from the other said passage so as to efl'ect rotary movement of said casing, and a plurality of blades mounted on said casing for imparting motive force to the vessel through the water in response to rotation of said casing.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Klatte 11534 X 6 3,139,062. 6/1964 Keefe 11534 X 3,241,456 3/1966 Wolfe 91-73 X FOREIGN PATENTS 5 648,950 1/1951 Great Britain.

EVERETIE A. POWELL, JR., Primary Examiner.

MARTIN P. SCHWADRON, Examiner. 

